06-09-2024
Input Output Functions
in C
Dr. Madhusmita Sahu
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science and Information Technology
Topics to be discussed
Header File
Standard Library
Syntax
Semantics
Operations
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06-09-2024
Header File
A header file is a file with extension .h which contains C
function declarations and macro definitions to be shared
between several source files.
There are two types of header files:
the files that the programmer writes and
the files that comes with your compiler.
You request to use a header file in your program by
including it with the C preprocessing directive #include
Header File
Including a header file is equal to copying the content of
the header file but we do not do it because it will be
error-prone and it is not a good idea to copy the content
of a header file in the source files, especially if we have
multiple source files in a program.
A simple practice in C or C++ programs is that we keep all
the constants, macros, system wide global variables, and
function prototypes in the header files and include that
header file wherever it is required.
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06-09-2024
Purposes of Header files
System header files declare the interfaces to parts of the
operating system.
You include them in your program to supply the definitions and
declarations you need to invoke system calls and libraries.
Your own header files contain declarations for interfaces
between the source files of your program.
Each time you have a group of related declarations and macro
definitions all or most of which are needed in several different
source files, it is a good idea to create a header file for them.
Standard Library
The C standard library is a standardized collection of header files and
library routines used to implement common operations, such as
input/output and character string handling.
Unlike other languages (such as COBOL, Fortran, and PL/I) C does not
include built-in keywords for these tasks, so nearly all C programs rely
on the standard library to operate.
The C Standard Library is a set of C built-in functions, constants and
header files like <stdio.h>, <stdlib.h>, <math.h>, etc.
This library will work as a reference manual for C programmers.
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Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the set of rules, principles, and
processes that govern the structure of sentences in a
given language, specifically word order and punctuation.
In computer science, the syntax of a computer language is
the set of rules that defines the combinations of symbols
that are considered to be a correctly structured document
or fragment in that language.
Semantics
Semantics is the study of the meaning of language.
It also deals with varieties and changes in the meaning of words, phrases,
sentences and text.
In programming language theory, semantics is the field concerned with the
rigorous mathematical study of the meaning of programming languages.
It does so by evaluating the meaning of syntactically legal strings defined by
a specific programming language, showing the computation involved.
In such a case that the evaluation would be of syntactically illegal strings,
the result would be non-computation.
Semantics describes the processes a computer follows when executing a
program in that specific language.
This can be shown by describing the relationship between the input and
output of a program, or an explanation of how the program will execute on a
certain platform, hence creating a model of computation.
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Difference between syntax and
semantics
Syntax is about the structure or the grammar of the language.
It answers the question: how do I construct a valid sentence? All
languages, even English and other human (aka "natural") languages
have grammars, that is, rules that define whether or not the sentence
is properly constructed.
Here are some C language syntax rules:
separate statements with a semi-colon
enclose the conditional expression of an If statement inside parentheses
group multiple statements into a single statement by enclosing in curly
braces
data types and variables must be declared before the first executable
statement
Difference between syntax and semantics
Semantics is about the meaning of the sentence.
It answers the questions:
is this sentence valid?
If so, what does the sentence mean?
For example:
x++; // increment
foo(xyz, --b, &qrs); // call foo
are syntactically valid C statements.
But what do they mean?
Is it even valid to attempt to transform these statements into an
executable sequence of instructions?
These questions are at the heart of semantics.
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Difference between syntax and semantics
Consider the ++ operator in the first statement.
First of all, is it even valid to attempt this?
If x is a float data type, this statement has no meaning (according to
the C language rules) and thus it is an error even though the
statement is syntactically correct.
If x is a pointer to some data type, the meaning of the statement is
to "add sizeof(some data type) to the value at address x and store
the result into the location at address x".
If x is a scalar, the meaning of the statement is "add one to the value
at address x and store the result into the location at address x".
Difference between syntax and semantics
Finally, note that some semantics cannot be determined at
compile-time and must therefore must be evaluated at run-time.
In the ++ operator example, if x is already at the maximum value
for its data type, what happens when you try to add 1 to it?
Another example: what happens if your program attempts to
dereference a pointer whose value is NULL?
In summary, syntax is the concept that concerns itself only
whether or not the sentence is valid for the grammar of the
language.
Semantics is about whether or not the sentence has a valid
meaning.
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06-09-2024
Types of Operations
Operation
Input Output
Input/Output operations
I/O operation in C language is performed through set of library
function supplied with complier.
There are set of header file which provides various library
function
A common used header file in C programming is stdio.h .
It is called standard input output header file.
The set of library functions that perform input-output operation
is known as standard input/output library (stdio.h)
Inside this header file there are two common functions.
printf() and scanf()
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Reading a Character
getchar();
Accepts any character keyed in including
return (enter)
tab space
Ex:
char variable_name;
variable_name=getchar();
Writing a Character
putchar(var_name);
Displays char represented by var_name on the terminal
Ex:
char c=getchar();
putchar(c);
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scanf()
This function is used for input purpose.
This function is used to read some data from the keyboard
and store it in the variable.
Syntax: scanf(“control string”, address of the variable);
Ex:-
int x; /* Declaration of an integer variable */
scanf(“%d”, &x); /* Input from keyboard for the variable x
*/
printf(“%d”, x); /* To print the value of the variable x */
scanf()
Each variable must have a field specification
For each field specification there must be
variable address
The scanf reads until
A white space is found in numeric specification
the maximum number of characters have been read
An error is detected
The end of file is reached
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Conversion Specifications
•The format specifier or the Conversion specification used by the printf() and scanf()
function specifies the type and size of data.
•Each format specifier must begin with a % sign .
Specifier meaning
%c a single character
%d or %i decimal integer
%f or %e or %g floating point number
%lf long range floating point
(double)
%Lf long double
%h short int
%s string
%u unsigned decimal integer
%o octal integer
%x hexadecimal
%[…] Read a string of words
Examples
int marks;
scanf(“%d”,&marks);
int basic,da;
scanf(“%d%d”,&basic,&da);
float x;
scanf(“%f”,&x);
double y;
scanf(“%lf”,&y);
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N.B
The modifier h can be used before conversion specifications d,i,o,u,x to specify
short integer.
The modifier l can be used before them to specify a long integer.
The modifier l can be used before conversion specification f,e,g to specify
double .
The modifier L can be used before f,e,g to specify long double.
Example:
%ld
%hd
%Lf
%hx
printf()
This function is used for output purpose. This function
takes an argument and display it in the console.
syntax: printf(“format specifier”, variable);
Ex: printf(“Hello”); /* Used to display the string Hello*/
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Examples
printf(“Programming in C”);
printf(“\n”);
printf(“%d”,x);
printf(“x=%d\n”,x);
printf(“The value of a is %d”,a);
printf does not supply new line automatically.
Thus ‘\n’ is used
Integer Examples
printf(“%d”,9678); 9 6 7 8
printf(“%6d”,9678); 9 6 7 8
printf(“%2d”,9678); 9 6 7 8
printf(“%-6d”,9678); 9 6 7 8
printf(“%06d”,9678); 0 0 9 6 7 8
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Real Examples
Syntax: %w.pf
w indicates the number of digits used for display
p indicates the number of digits to be displayed after decimal
Let y=98.7654;
printf(“%7.4f”,y); 9 8 . 7 6 5 4
printf(“%7.2f”,y); 9 8 . 7 7
printf(“-7.2f”,y); 9 8 . 7 7
String Examples
Syntax: %w.ps
w specifies width of field
p specifies only first p characters of string are displayed
Ex:
char a[20]=“Hello World”;
printf(“%s”,a);
H e l l o W o r l d
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Statements
In a C program instructions are written in the form of
statements.
Statements can be categorized as :
i. Expression statements
ii. Compound statements
iii. Selection statements( if, if.. .else, switch)
iv. Iterative statements (for, while, do…while)
v. Jump Statements(goto, continue, break, return)
vi. Label statements(case, default, label statement
used in goto)
Comments
Comments are used for increasing readability of the
program.
They explain the purpose of the program and are helpful
in understanding the program.
Comments are written inside /* and */ (Multiline
comment)
We can write comments anywhere in a program.
Example:
/* This is a C program to calculate simple interest*/
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06-09-2024
Example 1
/*This program prints Hello World*/
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
printf(“Hello World”);
}
Example 2
/*This program calculates area of a rectangle*/
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
float length,breadth,area;
printf(“Enter length: ”);
scanf(“%f”,&length);
printf(“Enter breadth: ”);
scanf(“%f”,&breadth);
area=length*breadth;
printf(“Area of rectangle is: %f”,area);
}
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